“It’s hurts and it’s really tough because those are three key, key slices that we need in our defense,” Church said. “An edge rusher is huge and Rolando was the guy in the middle that was holding everything down, especially against the run, so definitely it hurts our defense. But we’ve got guys that are in position, they’re there to step up and fill those roles. We’ll have DeMarco Lawrence and we’ll have Randy Gregory after four (games). But that Rolando 10-game one could hurt us pretty bad. We have Anthony Hitchens. He’s been playing before, he has experience. He’ll be able to step up and fill that role.

“But, like I said, it hurt us a lot as a defense because we needed those guys going into the season to start off how we wanted to start off. But we definitely have people that can fill in those roles for the time being.”

Raiders

According to Bill Williamson of Today’s Pigskin, the Raiders have a meeting scheduled for Monday with the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee in Las Vegas as the two sides work toward an deal on a proposed dome stadium in Vegas.

Williamson mentions that the Monday meeting could be significant in regards to the Raiders’ hopes of relocating the franchise to Vegas. They are, however, looking to find a suitable stadium site near the Las Vegas Strip.

With a site picked out, it would help the two parties pinpoint a more specific total for the stadium project. A few weeks ago, the city proposed a public contribution of $550 million toward a stadium, which is is significantly short of the $750 million the Raiders and the NFL are looking for.

According to Williamson, there are still some involved with the plans to relocate the Raiders to Vegas who are hopeful that they’ll be able to reach agreement at some point.